20 Slideshows

12. The Old Tennis Court. c. 3.15 pm.

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

This site was chosen for its rus in urbe quality and, in the vein of the last three sites which become progressively depopulated, features no people at all (except in 1981 when a couple appear in error but nonetheless partake of the pastoral atmosphere). Though there are no humans this site is our main wildlife section including over the years a magpie, a goat, a cat and a dog. The goat (quite a coup in Camberwell) is attached to the adventure playground which now exists behind us to the left.

The small shed marked PRIVATE slowly seems to dissolve into the undergrowth. The most dramatic episode in the history of the site was only missed by a day or two: the sole evidence that survives in 20 Sites that in 1977 the old tennis courts were for a brief span a gipsy encampment full of caravans and washing lines is the child's scooter abandoned in their apparently hasty departure. Corrugated iron is erected and the ground is ploughed.

In 1980 a strange artwork appears in the form of a kind of Woodhenge, an elegant alignment of short thick posts to which no function can be ascribed. By 1987 they too have almost dissolved into the undergrowth, though in 1989 they reemerge as if exposed by archaeologists.